Braided wool rugs are kinda a family thing for us.
Well, not really for me. A lot of things totally skipped a generation with me. I can’t sew “worth a lick,” as my mom would’ve said. But my daughters know their way around a sewing machine and back. I barely braid hair, but my daughters can take old wool skirts, jackets, and pants; cut them into strips; and braid and tie the most beautiful floor adornment my feet have ever trod.
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A Rug Braided Full of Stories
My daughters learned this beautifully practical talent from my mother-in-law. Who learned it from her mother-in-law, Marjorie. Unlike my daughters, who are pleased to make their rugs for only the cost of a few wool-clothing, thrift-store finds, Marjorie insisted on using only the finest 100% wool fabric she could buy.
I am thankful for Marjorie’s insistence on quality, because her diligent braiding is still displayed on my floorboards, more than eight decades after she laced those long rows of braids into a beautiful oval. I was shocked the other day when I saw this rug on Amazon that looks amazingly like the one Marjorie made that adorns our floor still today. It turns out, I learned, you can buy braided rugs at amazing prices. Mind you they’re not made like Marjorie’s but wow, this soft-jewel-toned braided rug is really pretty. And this braided rug is such a unique shades-of-gray coloring, not to mention its unique shape!
But Marjorie’s rug will always be my favorite of rugs. It cushioned the toddler feet of my father-in-law and his boisterous brothers. And it was a little worn but full of so many stories after Marjorie left her meager, white 2-story old home for her mansion built by her favorite carpenter.
She patiently pieced the rug one strip at a time, with brown, tan, and green ribbons of wool. She braided the rug while sitting in her little living room in Massachusetts. I imagine her lacing the rug in rows while praying for her sweet husband and planning meals or listening to Amos n Andy. That rug, with prayers and meal planning and radio entertainment braided right in, traveled up and down the east coast twice.
A Priceless Treasure
Those braids cushioned Marjorie’s great granddaughters’ toddler feet in their own 2-story home, on a tiny pie-shaped piece of land in Delaware. Then those wool braids moved back to New England when Marjorie’s grandson followed God’s leading and replanted his family on a 14-acre strip of woods that comes to a point where a lake empties into a sun-kissed river, 11 miles from the nearest traffic light. On that strip of woods, in that tiny rural town, Marjorie’s braided wool circle anchors the front room in the little red cape on the river.
It looks at home there. Its 80-yr-old braids might even feel young draped across the 200-year old floors.
So needless to say, the rug–with its worn beauty and its silent stories–is priceless to me. And I was ecstatic to recently discover the best possible way to clean it.
Read on for the easy 3-step process to delicately, effectively clean your braided wool rugs. And scroll down for an instructional video as well.
The idea is ingenious. A daughter at the family-owned braided rug store we visited told me the secret.
It boils down to 3 easy steps, well, and some necessary fluffy white stuff, which happens to be in grand supply most of the winter on our homestead…
3 Steps for Cleaning Braided Wool Rugs
Vacuum your rug well, on both sides. Never use a beater brush on your vacuum, but always use a gentle-suction hardwood floor attachment.
Lay your rug in freshly-fallen snow. A few inches of very lightly packed snow works the best. If the snow is too deep, or too icy, will be difficult or ineffective for cleaning. Encourage snow to seep up into the weaves of your rug by walking on it or hitting it with a broom or use the tool I love to use for this purpose. It’s called a SnowBrum (“broom”). You can find one here. Turn the rug over and repeat multiple times, until the imprint of dirt left in the snow is very faint.
Shake off excess snow and lay your rug out to dry. I stretched my rugs over stools in front of a toasty fire. I was amazed that it only took about 15-20 minutes for the medium sized rugs to dry, maybe 30 for the large.
What if you don’t have snow?
Of course I realize many folks don’t get the plethora of snow that we do here in New England. Take heart! You too can still clean your rugs. Kathy Trauger, a reader in the South reached out to me and shared how she cleans hers in the summer:
“When 100+ degree weather is a sure thing, then I take my braided rugs outdoors, use a shampooer with a soft brush on it, on a slanted concrete place, then hose off, roll up gently to cause a lot of water to discharge, then elevate with lawn chairs.
In the sun, at those temps, it dries in one day. Then I bring it in. Mmmmm!”
You’ll have immediate access to my free resource library, which includes a nice instructional printable of the 3-step cleaning process for braided wool rugs. Not to mention the recipes, free ebooks, and free excerpts from my new book, available wherever books are sold, Sweet Maple, Backyard Sugarmaking From Tap to Table.
Here are a few inspiring braided rug resources:
This tool is great at tamping the rug to get the snow deep into the braids to clean it.
This booklet walks you through planning the size and shape of your rug and teaches how to make it.
Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.
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13 thoughts on “Clean Your Braided Wool Rugs in 3 Easy Steps”
That’s so interesting! I didn’t know you could do that. I don’t have any braided wool rugs, and I didn’t have any snow to speak of this year, either. But I learned something, and you never know when I might need it, or can tell someone else about it. I enjoyed reading about the history of your mother-in-law’s rug. That’s amazing!
We can’t wait for IL to have snow so we can try this! Our rugs are in need of a good cleaning. Thanks for sharing..you saved us big bucks!
That’s so interesting! I didn’t know you could do that. I don’t have any braided wool rugs, and I didn’t have any snow to speak of this year, either. But I learned something, and you never know when I might need it, or can tell someone else about it. I enjoyed reading about the history of your mother-in-law’s rug. That’s amazing!
I never knew this could be done. And you did so well in the video. Sharing.
I don’t currently have any wool rugs, but I have this pinned so when I do I can remember these great tips!
I love the story behind your rugs. You’re being featured on Thursday’s Simple Homestead blog hop!